Sunday, May 8, 2011

Girls Run with Pride 5k recap

So Saturday was the big day for 10 elementary school girls, their first 5k! It turned out to be a beautiful day for a run. On Friday I went and picked up 20 packets. Thankfully the lady who was putting them together was nice and didn't kill me :) There were 220 people running the race. Perfect numbers for a first 5K. I love smaller races. We got a lovely 2006 Manassas City Police Department Christmas ornament. It was Christmas in May! That will go front and center on the tree this year.

Saturday I woke up and picked up two teachers, Becky and Kristen and then headed off to a local school to meet two more teachers. Lucy shows up and we are waiting for Lisa. For some reason Lisa is at Kohl's dept. store instead of Coles Elementary School. She will head over to the race and meet us there. One teacher arrived at the race at 7am. It was her first 5k and she must have been very excited too :) We make it to Manassas and unload the large bin of race packets. The girls start to show up and they look a bit nervous. We start pinning bibs and applying tags to shoes. Oh I hope they all have a great run.

The teachers (4 have never ran a 5K before)

The nervous Girls Run with Pride crew

We decide to start to do some stretches to loosen them up and take their mind off of the race.

Now we head off to the start line. Oh the parents looked so proud taking pictures of the girls. It was great!

We did our group cheer...1,2,3 Girl Pride! And they were ready to rock out their first 5K. I also yelled out some reminders: pull off to the side to start walking, have fun, try to maintain a steady pace and make sure you run across the finish line! And off they went. I was running with a 9 year old girl with long legs. She was a jack rabbit. Sprint for a few feet and then walk..sprint and then walk. I couldn't get her to do a slower jog. If I would do a slower jog she gave me the look like I am walking..oh well its her race. It was a beautiful area to run. We ran through some quiet neighborhoods that were very shady. It was great. We had some nice neighbors that were out handing out water. At one point my girl just looked at me like am I allowed to take the water bottle? Sure you can, that is why they are there. It was the only 5K that I have been in that you had 2 water stops (thanks to some nice neighbors). Towards the end I was trying to get her to run a bit more by pointing out the guy running with a small boy on his neck. She didn't want them to beat us?? Well it didn't really work. As we approached the finish a man with no shirt came running up and tried to get her to run some more by telling her that he was the winner of the race. I don't think my girl cared that he won the race lol. She did run for a tiny bit and then she let him go. I thought the idea that he just ran the course twice would inspire her, it didn't. We climb up our last hill and hear the crowd! We start running (I might have started her running too soon, but she made it running across the finish)

Yeah we did it! Kristen and I decided we would head back out and see where the last few girls were at and run back in with them. Turned out they were not that far behind us so we only ended up running the last bit with them. But the funny part was that every time I ran with a girl they would call my name crossing the finish line. Pam just kept running the finish! lol

Afterwards the man who put together the race pulled me aside. They had extra medals from previous years and offered me up some medals for the girls. How nice was that? So I got to present each girl with their first medal for their first 5k! I was so glad I picked this race as their first 5k race. It was the perfect size, the people were really nice.

Now to find out if anyone won their age group. Rumor has it that one of our girls might have won. But after checking we realize that the girl didn't because it was the 10-14 age group and not the 10-12..two 14 year old kids beat her! So close. But wait, my girl that I was running with won the under 10 category...I won!! I mean she won! I think that is the closest I will ever get to winning :) So she stuck around for a medal.

Ok time to head home. Wait they are handing out door prizes. I love door prizes!!! This is the best 5K race ever!!! And since most people left, my odds are pretty good too :)

Kelly is the first of our group to win a door prize. 50 dollars to a local running store. Then more prizes are given out. It seems like they are never ending.

Kristen is the next to win a prize. Yeah Kristen! Turns out I didn't win but that is ok, it was a great day for a run!
One of the girls asked if I was doing the running club again next year. I don't know. I said last week never again. But it did turn out to be a great day for a run. If I do it again, I think I will do it in the fall. The springtime was way to busy. We will see.

That's fantastic! I loved running club at my elementary school! I was never very good at sports involving a ball, a racquet, a hoop, a net, a bat or a stick, but I could RUN, and it really built confidence in me as I'm sure it did for the girls in your club!

My daughter has been asking me to run for a while and this morning we finally did it (she's four). We did a 1/2 mile. Sounds a lot like your girl: sprint...walk...sprint...walk...But it was super fun! Congrats to all your girls, and to you for helping out.

Amy - the girl I was running with told me that she doesn't like any sports with a ball. She doesn't like getting hit in the face lol. I told her running was perfect for her then because you don't normally get hit in the face. :) So maybe she is a bit like you and not good with those "ball" sports.

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About Me

Hi, my name is Pam. I am an elementary librarian working in Northern Virginia. I am a huge Steeler fan and I love running races. I ran my first half marathon in September 2010. I am also a Half Fanatic as of May 2012.. HF#2430!
If you would like to get in touch with me please email me: pamlansberry@gmail.com